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Felony charges dismissed against current, former Mercer school board members

Christa Reinert of Mercer was slapped with a restraining order last month, accused of harassing a teacher and coach who rented the sexploitation film “Fifty Shades of Grey” for a careful of high school girls. Reinert says the accusations are political and that the teacher sought the court’s protection only after she declared her candidacy for school board.(Photo: For the Journal Sentinel)

An Iron County judge has dismissed felony charges against five current and former board members of the Mercer School District accused of falsifying a letter to the state Department of Public Instruction and, in one case, destroying a video of a heated board meeting.

Board members Deanna Pierpont, Michele Holmstrom and Noel Brandt had been charged with misconduct in office; and former members Denise Thompson and Colleen "Kelly" Kohegyi faced charges of falsely exercising a function of public office.

Iron County Circuit Judge Patrick J. Madden said Tuesday that he dismissed the charges on due process grounds, finding that the five had no intention of committing crimes.

"These were citizens trying to respond to questions from the Department of Public Instruction," Madden said.

He dismissed the charge related to deleting the video, saying there's no requirement in the law that meetings be videotaped.

Madden heard the motions to dismiss Monday, the same day the five appeared for their initial court appearances, over the objections of Iron County District Attorney Matthew Tingstad. Efforts to reach Tingstad were not immediately successful.

The dismissals are the latest development for the Mercer School District, which drew national attention in 2016 after two of its girls volleyball coaches — one is among those who were charged — allowed some players to watch the sexploitation flick "50 Shades of Grey" en route to a tournament.

The charges stem from an investigation by DPI in response to a complaint by board member Christa Reinert, an angry-volleyball-parent-turned-whistleblower who ran for office in part because of the "50 Shades" debacle.

The five had signed a May 1, 2018, letter to DPI detailing how they voted in closed session to give $18,000 in bonuses to District Administrator Erik Torkelson and three others, without acknowledging the votes in any minutes. All five identified themselves as board members, though two had lost their seats the month before.

Pierpont faced a second charge of misconduct for allegedly deleting a video recording of a heated school board meeting in October 2017.

In an interview months later, Pierpont told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she erased it because she didn't like what she saw on it, and that Mercer no longer records its meetings.

"People in the audience were yelling. Students were there. ... I just felt that I didn't want that out on the website," she said at the time.

Attorney James McKenzie, who represented Pierpont and two others, argued in his motions that the charges were defective because they failed to set out essential facts that would support the inference of a crime. He also argued that the video was the personal property of Pierpont and not the school's. He declined to comment Tuesday.

Last summer, DPI issued a finding that the Mercer School District inappropriately spent about $175,000 from its community programs and services account — otherwise known as "Fund 80" — over the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years. Most of that was used to boost wages and benefits for a small group of employees, including Torkelson, who is also Kohegyi's son-in-law, without adequate documentation, according to the letter.

DPI also admonished board members for voting on bonuses in closed session. State law allows votes in closed session, but only in limited cases, and the state Department of Justice advises elected bodies not to do so, unless "doing so would compromise the need for the closed session."

Mercer challenged DPI's findings, and Torkelson said Tuesday that the two sides are in mediation to resolve the dispute.

Contact Annysa Johnson at anjohnson@jrn.com or 414-224-2061. Follow her on Twitter at @JSEdbeat. And join the Journal Sentinel conversation about education issues atwww.facebook.com/groups/WisconsinEducation.